i'll make you a star in my universe
by imperfectandchaotic
Summary: [2nd in the SDYG series] Klaus's fingers are ghosting patterns of blood over her skin and Caroline wonders what the colour would look like on his canvas.


**i'll make you a star in my universe**

**Disclaimer**: I do not own any part of The Vampire Diaries.

**Note**: Follow up to you think your dreams are the same as mine, which is only vaguely mentioned, but you may read that first if you wish. :)

* * *

><p>"Concentrate. What do you hear?"<p>

"Birds," Abby says, her eyes closed. "Squirrels, in the trees. The traffic."

"Okay." Caroline turns to circle around Bonnie's mother in the clearing. "Now focus on something. Sift it out from the rest."

Her face creases. "I think...I think someone's coming."

Caroline opens her mouth, training her ears, but before she can even focus her attention, Abby's intuition appears true in the form of Klaus. _Great. _

"Ladies."

Abby's eyes snap open, wide with fright. Before Caroline can even speak, the woman darts away with her newfound speed, leaving Caroline alone with Klaus, who is already beginning to smirk. She crosses her arms and glares.

"Thanks for that."

"I did nothing." Klaus raises his hands in the universal gesture for surrender. "Is it my fault she was clearly unhappy to see me?"

"Can you blame her? Were you seriously not contemplating killing one of the witches who helped Esther with her spell?"

Klaus's jaw tightens a fraction; Caroline knows she's won. He opens his mouth to reply, only to be interrupted by his phone. She hasn't seen Klaus in days, not since the night in her kitchen, and she's not sure what keeps her standing there as he answers.

Caroline doesn't need her vampire hearing to enjoy the dulcet screeching of Rebekah on the other line. "_Nik! Where are you?" _

_"_Out for a walk, Bekah, is there something you need?" Klaus looks at Caroline and rolls his eyes. The action is startlingly human. She swallows, casting a half-hearted eye around the wooded clearing for Abby, but she's probably already back at Bonnie's, safe and sound.

"_I'm bored. Nothing exciting ever happens here."_

Caroline is losing the battle to keep the laughter in. The Original Hybrid is practically _glowering. _"Have you forgotten sister dear, that our mother tried to kill us all not two weeks ago?"

A pause. "_You know what I mean." _

Klaus smiles at one corner of his mouth, the tilt actually seeming...affectionate. She is reminded once more of the bond between Original siblings, one that will probably outlast the Earth. It's fascinating to watch.

"Goodbye, Bekah."

As he hangs up, Caroline drums up the courage to ask, "Why does she call you Nik?" Klaus looks about as surprised as she is by this sudden interest in his life. She stumbles on. "I mean, no one else does, right? I've never heard Elijah call you anything but Klaus or Niklaus." The elder of the two feels worn and heavy on her tongue.

Klaus's expression is still wary as he replies. "Kol does too. They're young. As the world aged around us, they decided that Klaus was too old fashioned for more modern times, so—"

The words break off at the edge, like shattered glass. Caroline is tense all over before he raises a hand to his lips. Rustling, where the trees break up sunlight into shadow to her left. She turns silently towards the source of the noise, but even her eyes can barely see anything.

"Don't move," Klaus warns unnecessarily, before he blurs out of sight. The younger vampire is stunned; he'd barely made a sound. She wants to call after him. What is he even going to look for?

And then it happens. Four gunshots—she'd recognize the sound anywhere—and a scream that stills the very hum of the air.

It's not until Caroline looks down and sees the blood that she realizes it was hers.

**x**

She crumples, folding in on herself before realizing that actually hurts _more._ So Caroline lies on her back, staring up at the sky, trying not to scream, trying to steady her gasping breath. Perhaps, she thinks desperately, if they think she's dead they won't come out to finish the job.

For a moment, there is silence. A bird chirps overhead.

A dark form slams back into her field of vision; Caroline nearly jumps out of her very bones and twists even though it's useless, she's lost too much blood, she's too disoriented. Caroline is a sitting duck. She is going to die.

Her last conversation will have been with _Klaus._

"Caroline, Caroline! Sweetheart, it's _me."_ Her eyes focus, and there he is.

"K-Klaus?"

He drops to his knees beside her and examines the damage. Caroline isn't sure what he sees; there's blood all over her shirt, her jeans, staining the grass. It's never going to come out.

She's never going to be able to come back here.

Klaus's expression is so unfathomably concerned. Caroline is stuck on that, out of the frame of mind that would normally protest when he gathers her up in his arms and takes off towards town.

The blurring scenery is making her dizzy, so she lets her eyes drop closed. By the time she can open them again, Caroline finds herself staring at a gorgeous vaulted ceiling, complete with matching wooden beams. It's spinning.

This is definitely not her house.

She's starting to come to. The influx of pain is returning. Klaus's anxious face swims before her eyes.

It's fire, not slow licking like the pain of vervain, but a roaring explosion, raging and hot and just growing: the kind that burns down entire forests and still hunts for more. Carolin is past her own pride; she is crying and whimpering and everything is dimmed but the pain of four wooden bullets lodged deep past her skin.

Klaus tears her shirt, leaving her ribs and navel exposed.

"Caroline, darling, talk to me. Tell me where."

Caroline wants to laugh but it just won't come out right. She wants to tell him to stop with the pet names, but in this moment she is inexplicably comforted by them.

Klaus's fingers are ghosting patterns of blood over her skin and Caroline wonders what the colour would look like on his canvas. That decidedly morbid thought is cast aside however, as the door opens.

Rebekah.

"Just as I thought nothing interesting happened here," she drawls from the frame. Caroline has a sudden visceral urge to rip out her hair.

"Blood bags," Klaus says sharply, still staring down at her on the bed and the mess she's undoubtedly making of his sheets. "Now."

"We don't have—"

"D-Damon," Caroline gets out, unable to muffle her scream as Klaus's finger presses sharply underneath her ribcage. _One._ Her body arches, the pain searing up her spine until her vision dots black.

"_Now, Bekah_." Klaus practically snarls, which causes the hairs on the back of Caroline's neck to jerk up in alarm. His sister gives him a sharp look before disappearing, presumably, to the Salvatore Boarding House.

Caroline presses her lips together in an effort to stifle the noise spilling from her mouth.

"We're going to have to clean you up," Klaus says, and she tries to focus on the sound of his voice: gentle, rich, strange in its capacity to slow the non-beat of her heart. He holds up a damp cloth. "So I can see."

She just nods, not trusting her ability to speak. Klaus holds her gaze for a long moment, and goes to work. The cloth is soft, the water warm, his touch tender. He is silent. Caroline's eyelids are heavy again.

"How many?" he asks a while later. She has to force herself out of the drowsiness.

"Four."

Klaus's expression darkens. "I see three."

Caroline forces herself up onto her elbows, ignoring the way he reaches to steady her. It takes a considerable inner pep talk in order to look down at herself. Three dark circles mar her skin, which aches as it tries to stitch itself back together. Three, yet Caroline distinctly remembers four bullets.

The one beneath her ribs, almost brushing, two above her belly button. _Two, three._

Her stomach drops. There's another hole in her jeans, barely visible against the black denim, just grazing the sharp indent of her pelvic bone. Klaus follows her gaze. It's probably Caroline's imagination, but the burn intensifies._ Four._

"We'll start here," he says, touching her side. The spasm and yelp is automatic. Klaus stares down at her, evidently perplexed.

"Ticklish," Caroline hisses, her cheeks flaming even with lack of blood.

He opens his mouth, but it turns into a stupid grin. The jerk. "My apologies."

This is all getting too weird.

But not for long, as Klaus's hand hovers over the bullet beneath her ribs and it sinks in. He's going to have to pull it out.

"I can…" Klaus's jaw is tight. Caroline's stomach clenches. "You don't have to be awake for this."

_I can snap your neck. You wouldn't have to feel a thing._

In which lifetime, she wonders, did Klaus learn kindness? Did he pick it up between learning to tear out hearts and perfect the drink? Or has it been there all along, buried too far under layers of blood and violence to be remembered?

"No." She shakes her head. She has not let go of _girly little Caroline_ just to let her back in now. "Go ahead."

Klaus nods, his mouth tilting. _You're strong._ It's time to see whether he's right or not. "It's just us," he says, the words low and full of something without a name. "It's okay."

His fingers dig in and Caroline lets herself scream.

**x**

They're down to the last one when Rebekah returns. At this point Caroline is dangerously dehydrated, so to speak, so even the sight of the bags causes her fangs to sink painfully into her gums. She can't even sit up, so Klaus sinks the mattress with his weight, wrapping one arm around Caroline's waist and propping her up against the mass of pillows.

Who'd have thought? Klaus Mikaelson, Original Vampire and Hybrid Extraordinaire: Pillow Hoarder.

Man she needs blood. Right now.

"Go easy," Klaus says, handing Caroline the bag without so much as a protruding vein. "You'll make yourself sick."

"Thank you," she says, catching his gaze in an attempt to convey that this isn't just about the blood. He nods.

"You're welcome."

Caroline heeds his advice and sips slowly, though her head pangs with desire to inhale without pause. "Have to warn Damon," she mutters around the straw. "Dangerous."

It's about as close to full sentences as she can get. Klaus nods again, his hand reaching up to brush her hair over her shoulder, away from her blood-stained mouth. His fingers leave goosebumps in their wake. Caroline is too light-headed to comment.

"If you want," he begins slowly, and she forces herself to stop drinking in order to focus on him. "I can ask Rebekah to—"

He waves his free hand in the general direction of her legs. Caroline blushes, all the new blood rushing to her cheeks, realizing what he means.

"I—no that's...it's okay, I—" She fumbles for words. "Rebekah's probably the last person I'd want to...to do that."

The pair of them lock eyes. Swallowing the last drop is sort of painful. Caroline is surprised at Klaus's remarkable chivalry, but she reminds herself. He's lived for over a millennium, in periods where proper decorum is at its highest, utmost standard. A far cry from modern times.

Caroline is intensely touched.

She squeezes her hands into fists before reaching for the button of her jeans. Her hands only tremble a little as she peels down the zipper, and hisses as the fabric drags into the wound, still stubbornly trying to heal. Thankfully Caroline has to reveal very little; only the pale yellow waistband of her underwear peeks out when the wound is fully visible.

Klaus is looking at her again, sliding away from your side to lean closer to the bullet. She is struck by all the warmth he takes with him. His fingers skim her pelvic bone; the muscle jumps. Caroline's heart is lodged in her throat, rioting against this jarring feeling of intimacy.

"Ready?"

Nod. Try as she might Caroline can't hold back the whimper that quickly turns into a full-fledged cry. Being fully conscious is evidently worse than being close to death. She can feel the wood slide from her skin and it's relief like she hasn't felt since the sun went down that night in the Lockwood cell.

It's over.

The tears are bursting forth before Caroline can do anything to stop them. All the strength she'd had evaporates, leaving her dizzy and shaking and totally out of control. _Calm down, you're fine_. But she's not fine. She's not fine, so when Klaus crawls closer and pulls Caroline against him, she lets him.

When he strokes her hair, she lets him.

When he murmurs words Caroline can barely understand against the top of her head, she lets him, because it feels as though it's been forever since she allowed herself to fall apart. If it has be in the presence of someone who may or may not see her for everything she tries to be, then so be it.

"Rest now, love." Klaus lifts her up and tugs off all the bloodstained sheets with one hand, dropping her back onto his clean comforter, still wound around Caroline as though it would take an ocean storm to pull him away. "You'll feel better soon."

She turns into the hollow of his throat and says nothing, letting the darkness swallow her up.

**x**

"..had a bit of a scare—no she's fine now, sleeping, but I thought you'd like to know."

Caroline wakes up to Klaus, standing at the large window across the room, looking out at the impressive grounds of his mansion. A warm, soft blanket is draped around her form. His eyes flick to hers, as though he'd _known._ It's unnerving.

"Yes, I'll tell her. Thank you, Sheriff."

"You called my mom?" In spite of the all over ache, Caroline finds it in herself to put her best bitch face on. Klaus's arm drops, his amusement clear. "What am I, four?"

"In vampire years, actually, yes. She says to tell you she loves you." The word _love _coming from Klaus's mouth causes something to tighten in her chest.

She huffs, or as huffy as she can get without lifting her head. "What did you tell her?"

"Just that you're recovering, and that we're all very interested in finding the person responsible."

There is something about his tone. "And have you?"

Klaus averts his eyes. Caroline sits up, with effort. "_Have you_?"

"You're still—"

"Screw how I am," she snaps. "Bring them in here. Please," she adds as an afterthought. The Original hybrid gives her a long, searching look, before slipping from the room. Caroline's in mid reach for the blood bag on the bedside table when Klaus returns, throwing a trembling mass of limbs onto the floor before the bed.

Meredith Fell.

Caroline throws back the blanket and lurches to her feet, ignoring the dizziness that still clouds her head. Dr. Fell is on her knees, staring up at the young vampire, her throat baring tell tale teeth marks. Caroline glances at Klaus. He licks his lips.

"You?"

Meredith's eyes are filled with a strange mixture of contempt and fear. Caroline feels sick.

"You almost killed Alaric."

_If Damon hadn't found him…_she don't even want to think about it. The woman nods. Something searing shuts down every other cognitive part of Caroline's brain.

"You killed my dad."

The doctor's eyes widen. Disgust rises like bile in Caroline's throat. She lashes out, unthinking; the force of her backhand sends Meredith careening into the wall. Klaus doesn't move. Caroline looks down at the woman who caused her so much pain, shaking and crying on her hands and knees, holding her mouth. Her jaw must be broken

The vampire feels little over it.

She is not that person. Not anymore.

"Take her to Damon," Caroline says, before she can change her mind. "Let him deal with her."

She crosses the floor and tugs Meredith to her feet. She looks downright terrified. _You should be._

"I used to think we were the only monsters in this town," Caroline says, as Rebekah reappears in the doorway. The Original reaches out, but Caroline shakes Meredith's arm until she looks her in the eye.

"I was wrong."

Rebekah's smile is sinister as she drags the doctor out.

Caroline feels sick again.

She doesn't realize her knees are buckling until Klaus is there, wrapping another steadying arm around her waist. He eases her onto the bed and they both pretend she doesn't need his help.

"That was kind of you," he says. Caroline snorts.

"That wasn't kind. Damon is going to make it worse than I would have."

Klaus tilts his head. "And yet you spared her life."

She twists the blanket in her hands before keeling forward onto the comforter. Her head hurts again. "I refuse to let Meredith Fell change who I am. I'm not a killer."

She says the words before even thinking who she's talking to, but Klaus just looks at her, so reminiscent of the way he had in Caroline's kitchen to the lines of her favourite song, and her heart does that weird unnameable thing it likes to when Klaus is around. He's leaning down on the bed alongside her now, propped up on one elbow and balancing his chin with the same hand.

Caroline is once again struck but how very _human _he looks.

She is also struck, and mildly unnerved by, just how unafraid she is, essentially cornered by Klaus and his warmth and the smell of him: deep and rich and practically heady, like the way his first, oldest name tastes in her mouth.

Something Caroline hasn't felt in a long time settles in her chest, careful and hesitant like a nervous bird.

But she starts falling asleep before she can recall what it is.

"You can go back to sleep," Klaus says softly, his faint last words following her down in the dark.

_You're safe, love. _

The bird remains.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>In which I reference _if you fall asleep _without even meaning to. This is a rewrite, because I didn't like the ending and I wanted to keep with third person for the series that most of my Klaroline fich has fallen into. So second opinions?

Can someone please kill Meredith now. Seriously. Still.

Annie


End file.
